I love my writing space. Tucked away in the corner of one of the many coffee shops in the Devonshire town where I live, I sit at the same little wooden table every day, writing words of romance and friendship.

I’ve never been able to write well at home. There are just too many distractions, too much housework to do, too many boxes of work (I have a part time job as an educational blogger and data imputer which I do from home), and consequently too much guilt connected with what I ‘ought to be doing’ ready to interrupt my imagination.

My writing has always flowed at its best in an atmosphere of bustle. I like to be surrounded by happily chattering people, enjoying a break from their ‘real’ lives, while I let my invented characters take control of my pen-wielding fingers. Sometimes, I admit, the café can get a bit too noisy. However, that is no problem at all. I simply lower the volume around me by taking out my hearing aids- being deaf sure does have its benefits sometimes!

I even have, thanks to the lovely staff within my ‘writing’ café, a brass plaque on the wall above my writing space, engraved with the words, Jenny Kane’s Corner.

How amazing is that?! So now I am officially the cafe’s writer in residence; and as I sit and write in my little space I feel rather like one of my all time favourite literary characters; Winnie-the-Pooh! For just like him, I have my own corner!

Every week day I am at my desk so early that I have no fear of anyone else being sat there. At the weekend however it is a different matter, and I have to take my chances. I don’t mind other people sitting at my table- after all, I don’t own it – and I am perfectly OK working at other tables- providing I have coffee to hand. Today- right now in fact- as I sit at a table next to my usual writing spot- my heart goes out to my poor little desk!

A group of rather unpleasant teenage girls are sat there, happily flicking hot chocolate everywhere, while putting on make up they don’t need to wear, listening to music that would make my ‘Kay’ persona blush, while making unsubtle gestures at a group of teenage boys at the opposite end of the café. (My heart goes out to them as well, because they look like a nice set of lads who just want a quiet catch up after a week at college)

Of course, the girls will get fed up and leave soon; I’ll get out the cafe’s disinfectant (I more or less live in here, so I know where all the cleaning stuff is), and my lovely writing space will be a happy sanctuary of words once more.

And there are three plus sides to their unpleasant use of my lovely space-

1. I have something to blog about today.

2. Next time I need to write about the more thoughtless members of our teenage population I’ll have a memory to use as story fodder!

3. It never hurts me t be reminded how lucky I am to have such a space in the first place (not to mention, how lucky I am to have such well behaved children!)